bill: that wraps our coverage from columbus, battleground state. you know all of that. seven days away from a national election. campaigns are down for the most part. you're up on tv and radio throughout the central ohio area, martha. hotly-contested. don't lose sight of it seven days away matte hang in everybody in new york, new jersey all the states on the east coast. we'll be back with you tomorrow. "happening now" starts right now. jon: at fox news alert. a historic storm leaves massive destruction in its wake. much of the east coast now dealing with flooding, crippled transportation and power outages and now the storm heads west. nearly 200 firefighters battle an enormous inferno in new york city. 80 homes burned to the ground in one devastated seaside community. many evacuated residents still uncertain whether they have a home to go back to. a new jersey nuclear plant deer clairing an alert

after floodwaters rose seven feet high. an update and more all "happening now." jon: good morning to you, from a shell-shocked northeast. i'm jon scott. jenna: nice to have you back in the studio. jon: great to be back. jenna: you felt the elements out there. jon: it wasn't as bad when i was out there as it got. jenna: show you comparisons yesterday, you get the feeling what the last 24 hours means not only for new york city but the entire east coast. i'm jenna lee. we're so glad you're with us today. new york and new jersey declared major disaster areas, one day after the super storm, named sandy slammed into the u.s. mainland and left behind a trail of devastation. at least 18 people are dead across seven states and more than seven million now without power. you have huge portions of the state of new jersey

underwater at this hour, including the resort town of atlantic city. where floodwaters swamped buildings and stranded many motorists. new jersey's governor, chris christie, weighing in on the damage earlier today. >> i will first say to all of you, especially those out there facing loss, devastation, and heartbreaking reality your home may be gone, we're with you. we have a long road ahead of us but i have complete confidence we're going to come out of this better and stronger than before. this state is too tough to give into this type of devastation. jenna: we're still getting a look at some of that devastation in new jersey. across the river in new york city, much of lower manhattan was plunged into darkness as the storm closed in on the city last night. it hurled a record-breaking 13 foot storm surge into the southern tip of the island right where jon was standing yesterday. we'll show you his shot yesterday in a little bit to show you exactly what this looked like. basically in lower manhattan the world's financial

capital, was submerged and water was sent pouring into the subway system which is not operating today. as cleanup efforts get underway the national guard is headed towards hardest hit areas to help out. this as the storm sets its sights on chicago and wisconsin. it is not over. jonathan hunt on hard hit long island with more on conditions there and our first look really. high hi, jonathan. >> reporter: hi, jenna. as the sun rose on long island this morning the devastation became horribly clear to everybody. it is quite extraordinary as you walk around this barrier island city. a block in front of me is the ocean. just about half a mile behind me is the bay side of this barrier island and last night, when that storm surge hit, it was worse between 6:00 p.m. and about 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. last night.

waters from both sides met. there is not a street on this barrier island that was not at some point flooded. and people now are just having to deal with it. i'm a block of the ocean here. this entire apartment, this ground level here, completely and utterly flooded. you can see the debris. bricks come off parts of their walls around it. it is a similar story up and down these streets. cars have just been moved hundreds of feet in some cases, completely destroyed. at this stage i have to say you talk to people here, it's a question of assessing the damage really before they even begin to pick up the pieces. this is going to be a very long and very difficult process here on long beach which is a city which as i say is largely destroyed, at least on the ground level of so many buildings right now and we're hearing similar stories right across long island. it is difficult to get any information. all power is out here in long beach city. we're operating off of

batteries which will soon run out. it is very difficult to get any information at all. it is a desperate situation for millions of people on this island today, jenna. jenna: difficult for us to transmit video. we'll be getting video throughout the day from jonathan and our entire team here at fox. thank you. that is jonathan live from long island. not the only area affected but one of the most affected areas seems like. jon: at this point the storm is still pounding the country as it moves inland and bringing snow and all kinds of misery to other folks as well. super storm sandy has moved to the west but the flooding threat is not over for parts of the coast. in delaware, officials are warning another tide cycle today could mean more flooding this afternoon. road closures and power outages widespread across the state. a driving ban has just been eased and many roads are impasseable because of downed trees. joining us by phone, delaware's governor jack

markell. >> good morn. jon: you issued a statewide driving ban. that has been eased somewhat, correct? >> utilities are making progress in getting that down. we did have a pretty strict driving ban in place. that has been released some. people shouldn't be joy-riding but they can go to work and the like. i think when we look at it, you know, particularly compared to some other states we spared the worst of it. jon: you ordered about 50,000 people to evacuate the low-lying areas of our your state. did they comply? >> we're really grateful so many people complied both with the mandatory evacuations as well as driving restrictions. those two factors combined with the fact that we were spared the worst has led us to be in better shape than we had expected. better shape than some other states. jon: what is the biggest problem at this point? for instance, route 1, that is one of your major coastal highways. is that passable?

>> it has been closed now for two days. i think biggest thing i'm concerned about is the power outages as well as the continued impasseable roads. we have about 90 flooded areas across the state. fortunately we've got a great emergency response community and they're doing a great job. jon: your fellow neighboring governor chris christie sounded pretty glum today when he addressed cameras. normally not a guy to hide his emotions but he sounded, well, pretty whipped. >> yeah if you look at some of the things they're going through in new jersey, just our hearts go out to them. these, the families who have lost loved ones. all the challenges they're having. there are still people here without power. but we'll work our way through this our hearts go out to those that suffered. jon: you said the good news the power crews are already at work and you may get power back there in delaware fairly quickly. >> i warned people power could be out for a week or more. i don't have an estimate

yet. i expect to that tonight, first thing in the morning but i know they're working it. jon: other than flooding have you seen signs of significant devastation, i mean highways washed away or bridges taken out, things that are going, infrastructure that will take a long time to repair? >> some of our coastal communities are still cut off, we have some coastal communities that often get flooded and they got flooded badly this time. so there will be work to today there for sure. jon: governor jack markell, the governor of delaware. we know you have a lot to do. we appreciate you taking time. jenna: back to new york city where mayor bloomberg is giving a briefing. let's take a listen. >> damage done to the rolling stock but the tunnel is all flooded and that will be a big problem to get them back going. public transportation remains closed until further notice is a good way to think about it. there is no firm timeline for the reactivation of bus or train service but i'm sure the mta will do everything it can to have limited bus service, perhaps this afternoon and hopefully

we'll be able to announce or joe will be able to announce restoration of most bus service by tomorrow. we certainly think the roads by tomorrow will be clear and free of water. all major airports serving the metro area are closed today. runways are flooded and there are no flights leaving or arriving. how much damage was done to the navigation equipment and lighting around them we don't know yet. to help people get around, i have signed an executive order that permits cab drivers to pick up multiple passengers even if a passenger is already in the cab. it will also allow livery and black cars to pick up passengers off the street anywheres in the city. these measures will be in place as long as mta service is out. if you use one of these cars please make sure the car has a tlc license plate. now let me bring up to date on our hospitals. we reported last night that nyu downtown and the manhattan veterans hospitals

were closed. nyu langone also had to be evacuated overnight. that is virtually complete. bellevue hospital has lost power but at the moment is going, is freighting on backup power. coney island hospital has been evacuated. the department of health is sending people to each of the hospitals and chronic care facilities in zone a. we've had significant challenges at many of our hospitals and health care facilities. fortunately as of now there has been no storm related fatalities at any of them. there are more than 6100 people in our emergency shelters, and i'm happy to say there are more than 2200 city staff working in those shelters right now. a number of our shelters lost power last night but we're able to get backup generators to those that didn't have one. we received almost 4,000 tree service requests since the storm began. those are for damaged or falling trees. the majority of those are in queens. let me just urge everybody,

311 for downed trees. please, or text 311 to report damage. they represent and real and serious danger and we've seen tragic proof of that today. yesterday a partly damaged crane at a site on west 57th street required evacuation of the immediate vicinity. the department of buildings has determined that the crane is currently stable however we can't fully secure the crane until the wind dies down. the procedure there will when the winds die down to try to get the boom and strap it to the building and reopen the streets and over a period of time the contracting company will have to figure out aways to build a new crane on top and take that one down. schools as you know are closed today. i'm announcing they will also be closed tomorrow. as to city employees, here's what we've told them. new yorkers need your help today working for the city. we have an obligation to help others. if your office is open and if you can safely, i repeat

safely get to work, please do so. if your office is closed and you can safely report to a shelter to assist with operations please do so. for example, all h.r. a centers are open for people who need to access benefits fits including replacement food stamp voucher for people who lost food as a result of the storm. we're reaching out to small businesses to help them recover their business and stay in business. 311 has long waiting times right now. please use 311 online or text 311. verizon had problems with their lines but we managed to keep some of the 311 lines open. 911 has been going without a itch had. delays got up to five minutes. last time i checked they were minimal. 911 has to be reserved only for life-threatening things, not for a tree, please. we just got to make sure if somebody has a real emergency, we can get to them. and in terms of real

emergencies, if you see a power line down don't go near it. we've had some people killed for stepping in a puddle where a power line had also touched the water. jenna: quick summary by mayor bloomberg for the entire city of new york. here is some of the highlights. no schools tomorrow. no airports. no subways. no us abouts. there are freeways into the city of manhattan, few ways out, of course that being an island. another thing you mentioned the evacuation of a few hospitals including nyu langone. that is where our own dr. siegel, would. he will join us in an hour and about the evacuation and health concerns he has. if you like to watch more of mayor bloomberg and his announcement, foxnews.com. jon: meantime a nail biting rescue at sea and it is all caught on tape. >> this one is swinging really bad. >> roger. jon: the coast guard saves more than a dozen people

from a sinking ship but the mission continues today. the latest on the search for the missing captain of the tall ship, the hms bounty. total devastation in one new york city neighborhood. the super storm sparks flames that could not be extinguished. 80 homes burned to the ground.

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like optional better car replacemen from liberty mutual insurance. total your car, and we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. learn about it at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility -- what's your policy? jon: right now snow is falling in the mountains of west virgina. this is beckley, west virginia. it is my understanding this is near the greenbrier resort, well-known resort there in the mountains that has drawn a lot of tourists over the years. this is from the wchs tv-8 towercam. it is creating a travel nightmare up and down the east coast. huge national and international flight delays as a result of airport closures, all kinds of

problems in, in airports across the northeast. new york city's century-old subway system shut down because the worst of the disaster, it has, really worst disaster the system has ever been through. the airports in the northeast no better off. thousands of flights have been canceled. and, weary passengers are left trying to find other options. listen. >> pittsburgh, rent a car take it from there. we're about three or four hours from pittsburgh. hopefully we got a car rented there. if we get to pittsburgh, that much closer to home. jon: you might have heard from mayor bloomberg the new york city airports are not expected to reopen at least until tomorrow, maybe not even then. william la jeunesse is following this story for us. this storm is stranding travelers all over the place, huh? >> reporter: or the storms have been stronger but none

more disabling to the transportation network. airlines, rails, shipping, public transportation in six metro areas in lockdown, jon, nothing going in or out. 16,000 flights have been canceled because of sandy. washington, baltimore, philadelphia, new york, newark, pittsburgh, providence, hartford airports all affected. new york's airports, laguardia, jfk. 84 out of london, 200 out of l.a. 450 out of chicago o'hare. all canceled that is just today. >> supposed to be only a two-hour layover here and then, georgia. and now it is beginning to be a 28 hour-layover to tomorrow. >> basically three days in the is and only seen airports due to the storm. >> a lot of people in my company got stuck today already. i'm glad to be going west. >> reporter: 700 flights

canceled already tomorrow, jon. the waiting list is long. could be this weekend before people get back and rerouted and rebooked. jon: a mess across the country. thank you, william la jeunesse. jenna: the appalachian states also feeling effects of the powerful super storm. we have dramatic photos of the massive snow fall. we'll speak with the governor of west virgina beginning next hour what his state is dealing with. meantime one of the things that really affected this storm is the full moon. you keep on people hearing say that. that is affecting tides we're seeing. apparently the full moon is partially responsible for the record breaking storm surge that hit lower manhattan along with other areas on the east coast. we have new video of the flooding after the

break. jon: right now the hybrid super storm triggering a massive fire in the new york city bureau of queens. 80 homes burned to the ground in the flooded seaside heights neighborhood i should say of breezy point. more than 190 firefighters have contained what became a six alarm fire but they're putting out some pockets of fire. here is how one witness described that devastation. >> i'm pretty much in the middle of the peninsula there in breezy point and i just was expecting maybe getting to the first floor. i wasn't too concerned about it. now with the devastation they're talking about, to be honest with you i'm concerned about my home. i'm more concerned making sure the people i left behind or stayed behind got on some buses and make their way to the evacuation center at hillside heights. jon: firefighters just couldn't get there to put that thing out. one firefighter, two civilians, suffered minor

injuries but they are expected to be okay. jenna: amazing job they do as always. more information on a daring rescue off the coast of north carolina yesterday. a massive search underway, the captain of the hms bounty. you're seeing on the screen. it has now sunk. the crew abandoning the replica of the historic tall ship when it got stuck in hurricane sandy. one crew member, a woman, was found dead. you're seeing some of that footage of the rescue on the screen. joining us on the phone, captain anthony pope peel. commander of sector for the u.s. coast guard. talk about the rescue own going right now. what is chances for survival of this man? >> we have two air on scene conducting a search. we have 225 foot cutter. right now the outlook, the campaign -- campaign was

wearing a survival suit in the water. that, tenledz his life expectancy in the water. he is equipped the to tools to survive. we're approaching we will find him alive. jenna: we were as well. we were seeing crewmembers getting off a helicopter they were rescued on, walking back and trying to get warm and dry again. what have they told you about what happened out at sea? >> they had been taking on some water over the course of the day and the storm exacerbated the situation and they made plans to abandon ship and, as they were trying to enter the life rafts the ship had lost its stability and rolled on them and tossed everybody in the water. so looks like they were, they had a good plan. they were following it and just an unfortunate roll interrupted their plan. jenna: so everyone was attempting to get on these life rafts but not everybody made it on? >> that's correct. jenna: the captain was probably one of those folks? >> yes. right now there is no indication he ever made it to the life raft.

like i said, we're following the drift line and, you know hopefully it will lead to successful recovery. jenna: one of your rescue swimmers said this is some of the highest seas he has ever seen in his life. talk to us, a little bit about how difficult this rescue was. >> sure. the, of course there's 35 to 45 knot wind and 18 to 20 foot seas. just holding a hover over the water with the surface below you changing by 15 to 20 feet every 10 seconds it is incredible difficulty to the evolution. and we're just lucky we've got the best pilots out there that perform these missions. jenna: truly incredible. i have also heard some other reports that have mentioned, again we don't know all the facts right now, that the ship was attempting to go around the storm. have you heard that from some of the crewmembers? and for those that might be listening that might attempt the same thing, what would you tell them? >> well, this was a big storm. it has, it was pushing a lot

of water. and the captain, you know, i have met captain wallbridge personally. he told me how he had been through other storms and felt confident in the crew and felt confident in his vessel he could go around and handle the rough weather. you know, i don't want to second-guess him at this point. unfortunately the weather got the best of him this time. jenna: yeah, absolutely. still piecing together the facts. we'll keep hope he is still out there. we know your rescue teams are out there. we appreciate you checking back, captain. great work all your crew. >> thank you. jon: those coast guard rescue swimmers are really amazing. we spend a lot of time talking about the army, the navy, our marines and our servicemembers who put themselves in hard way. coast guard swimmers and pilots do an amazing job. jenna: real quick here. one of the crewmembers, claudine christian, is they found and not able to

rescue. here is her picture. we were able to talk to her mother yesterday while it was all developing. we decided it was best until we find out information. claudine made contact with her parents. i'm worried, i love you guys. her mother, seemed to have a maternal instinct she was concerned when she hadn't heard from her daughter. our thoughts and prayers are with that family today. one. families experiencing loss from this terrible storm. jon: her mom said she loved being on that ship. lower manhattan completely underwater. subways, many of the tunnels, absolutely impasseable. we have a live report on what is sure to be a transportation nightmare that lingers here for weeks coming up. millions without power. many in shelters now. how you can help coming up. [ male announcer ] red lobster's hitting the streets to tell real people about our new 15 under $15 menu. oh my goodness! oh my gosh, this looks amazing! that's a good deal! [ man ] wow! it is so good! [ male announcer ] our new maine stays!

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mountain, tennessee. here is fed fred. he is clearing snow from his car in lexington, kentucky. a winter storm warning is up through wednesday. >> this is video of the battery tunnel. this leaves new yorkers with limited ways to get off the island aft little fish there. jon: a little fish didn't get out of the ocean. jenna: you don't think of fish when you think about battery tunnel. david lee miller is at the out of the tunnel. what is happening there? >> reporter: we're at entranceway to the brooklyn battery tunnel. this tunnel has been here for 62 years. you see for yourself the extend of the damage. take a look at water. the tunnel is completely impasseable unless you have a submarine to get to brooklyn. we're told that the water, essentially was at street level coming over the walls, promenade walls along the hudson river and that it

made its way to its lowest point entering into the tunnel. authorities say in order to get the water out it will require a great deal of pumping. it will not recede naturally. also, there is a great deal of flooding underneath the streets of new york, even though much of the water receded undersurface level. many subway tubes are completely flooded. just a short time ago mayor bloomberg explainedded that the city is doing whatever it can to get things back to normal. >> this morning we've begun the work of clearing and reopening bridges and roadways both which take some time. the best way new yorkers can help to get this done quickly is stay of at roads. the work is underway. east river bridges are already reopened. work of getting our mass transit grid and our power grid restored however will take more time and a lot of patience. >> reporter: take a look again at the brooklyn battery tunnel. you can see that this is

going to take more than a matter of days for this water to be pumped out of here and for the tunnel to return tomorrow normal. some quasi-good news for new yorkers, jenna. we could see subway service restored in a few days time. there is talk, talk of some limited bus service taking place possibly as soon as this afternoon, but still, this is a city that is partially paralyzed. jenna? jenna: we'll take the good news where we can even if it is quasi-good news at this time. david lee, thank you. jon: for those who don't know, that tunnel goes under the east river. takings you out of manhattan to brooklyn going under the east river, guessing 50 feet, 60 feet. there is awful lot of water filling that tunnel. search-and-rescue efforts underway in new jersey after super storm sandy roared ashore last night, cutting off atlantic city and other barrier island communities. one town is under five feet

of water with residents in a trailer park standing on rooftops. joining us on the phone from atlantic city, the spokesperson for the american red cross. catherine, i red statistics i know that the red cross has its hands full but doing great work after the storm. >> i'm very proud of our red cross workers. we had the opportunity to prepare well in advance of this event. with the advance notice, we were able to have shelters already open and available to the communities affected well in advance of this. jon: looks like those shelters are pretty, pretty well-populated? >> they are. they are. last night we had over 11,000 people stay with us across 16 states. with the use of our hurricane app you can find a shelter nearest you if you're in one of these affected communities. jon: what about help from,

you know, americans who are not affected so far? what can you use? usually, blood donations are a big item at a time like this. >> absolutely. as you can imagine the east coast has had to cancel hundreds of blood drives that were already scheduled. so we are in great need of blood donations and financial donations. this is a relief operation that is not just about sheltering for the immediate needs but there is long-term financial and emotional recovery. and we will be here to take care of those needs. jon: so people who live in parts of the country unaffected they can get on the web or text a donation? how do they do that? >> absolutely. they can go to redcross.original or text the word red cross to 9099 to make a $10 donation or call 1-800 red

cross. any help would be appreciated. jon: our viewers will respond and everybody pitches in to help each other out. catherine, thank you. jenna: we may be talking about tracking the devastation but we have to be very clear that this storm is not finished yet. jon: yeah. >> damage from the storm continues. up ahead we'll take a look at what is to come. also very latest on power outages, property damage and the mounting death toll ahead on "happening now.". i love to eat. i love hanging out with my friends.

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be. jon: as usual our viewers are helping us tell this story. this is a picture from robert in lower manhattan. this is from last night. as you can see floodwaters are reaching the hoods of those cars and even beyond. this photo taken by someone near and dear to us here at "happening now." monica galvis is our elements producer. she is normally responsible for getting still photos and other graphic images on air. this one is her own house.

a large tree came crashing onto her home in union city, new jersey. she is okay, thank goodness. jenna: thank goodness that is big true. jon: our hearts go out to monica and her family. look at this photo from m the acedon, new york, up near rochester. they can not leave their home until they get rid of a large spruce tree across from their driveway. wow! if you can get photos safely send them to us, foxnews.com/ureport. include your name and location and you might see your picture on tv. jenna: the downed trees with are where most of the accidents are taking place. the most of the things the storms brought the trees falling over seems the most dangerous. jon: boys were killed in their home when a tree fell on them. awful. jenna: we'll watch that for you. meantime as the storm moves west we're getting a clearer

idea what exactly everything looks like on the east coast. we have cell phone video of this electrical substation explosion here in manhattan last night. you will see it go in just a second. in terms of power outages overall, an estimated 8 million homes and businesses are now in the dark across 16 states, and the district of columbia. there it goes. that's where it happened. jon: wow. jenna: obviously hard to repair that at this time. so much is underwater here in new york city but as we were just mentioning there is a lot going on as far as chicago. more than two million people in hard hit new jersey alone are being affected by some of the power outages. that is twice the number of houses impacted by hurricane irene last year. at least 18 deaths reported in seven states. for a little more perspective, how about this? one in six people are without power in new york, pennsylvania and new jersey. in new jersey we find ron, a spokesperson for new jersey power and light. what are you dealing with right now?

>> we're dealing with outages to more than 930,000 customers. that is a significant portion of the 1.1 million customers we serve throughout the state. jenna: we saw that explosion at the substation. it was a big dramatic moment that affected power in the city of manhattan. did you have something similar out in new jersey? what caused the power outages? >> we did not have something similar to that we took some of the substations in barrier island communities and coastal communities off-line for safety reasons last night. our biggest concern is damage to our transmission lines of the we've started our assessment process and the winds will cooperate a little bit today we'll get helicopters up in the air to do an aerial assessment so we see what needs to be done to get the transmission system prepared because that is the key to delivering service to the substations that then feed the neighborhood homes. jenna: is that part of the problem, ron? just trying to figure out exactly what happened so you can fix it? >> exactly. assessment. we started the assessment this morning. we have crews out doing

that. yesterday we had crews unable to work in buck kets because of gusting winds. today we're out there looking. we have our forestry personnel out there. more than 1200 forestry workers. we have more than 1600 linemen. we'll go out and do the work. important to note the first piece is assessment. that could take a day into a second day. once that assessment piece is complete. then the effort turns to restoration. jenna: talk to me about expectations. when do you think you will get power back to the nearly one million people that you mentioned? >> this will be an extensive restoration process. at the onset we expect to be out of power seven to 10 days after we complete our assessment, then we'll take a look at that. jenna: how about people that do have power right now? do you expect them to have power from now onwards? are you worried about more power outages to come? >> there is always potential we could have additional customers go out of service especially when you're doing arrestor race of this type. you may need to take a few customers out of service in order to bring larger groups

of customers back. that is when restoration comes back. you deal with police stations hospitals fire departments. they were you move on to things that bring largest number of customers back to service at one time. jenna: when you talk about the assessment and some people taken off the grid as just for cautionary reasons, is there any way for residents to know, hey, i lost power because there is a big problem in my neighborhood? or i lost power because this is preventative measure from my company? >> from time to time if we have an opportunity to forewarn customers we'll take a planned outage we certainly attempt to do that. given the nature what happened over last two days we were working to make sure the system was safe. jenna: compared to irene, ron, how does this compare? >> this definitely has surpassed irene in terms of the amount of damage that we've seen. as i said, we just started our as -- assessment process. we'll be out there seeing how much worse than irene

this is. jenna: sounds like you're firing on all cylinders, ron, pardon the expression if there is no power. great to have you talk with us today. we wish you best of luck as you work around the clock to get this fixed. >> thank you. jon: cleanup efforts are underway across the mid-atlantic region even as the storm continues on. countless streets an homes are underwater. we have the very latest from hard-hit ocean city, maryland. we'll be speaking with the mayor in just a bit. the powerful superstorm slamming after lach chan states with snow fall. dramatic images of early season snowfall coming up [ man ] ring ring... progresso this reduced sodium soup says it mahelp lower cholesterol, how does it work?

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jenna: fox news alert. joining mitt romney in ohio where he is talking a little bit about hurricane relief.

he was talking a moment ago what happened during hurricane katrina and some folks being moved from there from louisiana to massachusetts. let's listen to the governor. >> randy owen from alabama to be here. [applause] he's an extraordinary guy. he will probably tell you the story about storms, tornado actually that hit his county in alabama and described why it is that he is here. we appreciate the fact that he is agreed to come entertain and bring people in who have in turn brought in goods as their cover charge if you will to be here this morning. thank you for your help and your generosity. by the way if you have a little extra, if you have more canned goods, bring them along to our victory centers that are open. but also if you can write a check to american red cross, that is welcome as well. we're looking for all the help we can get for all the families in need. thank you for your generosity. thank you for your support. i will go to work here at

the table. get things sorted and boxed up and loaded in the trucks. and for the rest of you, enjoy the concert randy will put on. jenna: not your typical stump speech. so much in the campaign is interrupted over past few days for both governor romney and president as well. the president staying off the campaign trail today, staying at the white house. he has done a few teleconferences. we're hearing briefing happening here because of the storm. mitt romney staying in ohio. he set up in some of his centers. we heard from the republican national committee yesterday, they're turning some of their campaign centers to collect canned goods and donations as you heard the governor talk about today. we'll keep an eye on all that is happening in the campaign trail. it has become a little bit of a second thought, jon, to what is going on here. here we are, a week away from the election. jon: we have such massive work ahead in this country, it seems, you know, make as political campaign seem a little bit pet te -- petty. jon: the streets are flooded

in maryland, filled with debris in many places. a superstorm blitzing the area overnight with wind gusts over 65 miles an hour. ocean city experiencing destruction shn the historic pier on the boardwalk. some say conditions are worst they have ever seen. we have the director of the emergency management services. is there any good news to report, joseph? >> the good news the storm is past us. we're getting the community back open again. ocean city will go back into full swing hopefully by the end of the day. we're addressing needs at this point, doing street assessment, getting streets back open again. the flooding is subsiding. we're expecting the community to be back where it used to be very shortly. jon: i know a lot of people like to vacation there and that historic pier holds so many fond memories for people. what is its situation?

>> well the pier did sustain some damage from the storm itself. it probably lost 100 foot of the pier. we'll be evaluating. i'm sure the pier will be reconditioned and rebuilt again and i think that they will have the luxury they have previously. jon: sound like people there by and large heeded the evacuation orders? >> they did. the community worked well in partnership with government. we had some mandatory evacuations in some of the known low-lying areas that are susceptible to flooding. they listened to the call, voluntary in the rest of the towns. but we got threw it together. certainly something that we haven't seen in many years but we were prepared. forecast was consistent. the took the appropriate actions and we're getting back into business. jon: optimistic note there to end the discussion. joseph theobald, manager of emergency services in ocean city, maryland. thank you. >> thank you. jenna: rescue efforts underway in new jersey right now where whole families are being put into boats taken to higher ground.

one of the questions we were talking about on set, how will this affect election day one week away? more on "happening now.". >> i don't give a damn about election day. it doesn't matter a lick to me at the moment. i've got much bigger fish to fry than that. so do the people of the state of new jersey. so, let the politicians who are on the ballot worry about election day. it is not my problem. i'm not dealing with it at the moment.

jenna: just before high noon on the east coast. we have fox news alert. super storm sandy still a major threat after smashing into the eastern seaboard and hraoeflg behind so much death and destruction, and it's important to note it's still not over. even though it hit the east coast it's moving, moving west. glad you are with us for a second hour of "happening now," i'm jenna lee. jon: a lot of people dealing witness right now. i'm jon scott

jon: passengers are stranded from coast to coast and around the world. flight aware.com reporting 800 flights already canceled for tomorrow on top of some 10,000 flights that have been scrubbed to this point already. a major fire burning 80 to 100 homes in one flooded neighborhood to the ground. parts of new nuclear power plants were shut down late monday and early tuesday while another one was put on alert after waters rose six feet above sea level. blizzard conditions dumping heavy no on parts of west virginia, kentucky, tennessee and maryland.

cutting off communities along the coast of new jersey strapping people who had decided to ride out the storm. we'll get to janice dean in a moment on the latest storm track. rick leventhal live in point pleasant, new jersey where pounding waves punched through the sand downs pushing the ocean into the seaside town. all kind of damage, huh, rick? >> yeah, jon. cleanup can't begin until the roads are cleared. that is starting to happen right now. look how short the parking meter is now. a few feet of sand beneath my feet. you see them clearing standoff ocean avenue which was a raging river last night. some of the beach-front homes lost the front of their homes, and there is sand in their living rooms. come around this way, i want you to see looking south on ocean avenue how badt is. there are rolling downs on the street that in some case are about three feet deep, and there are many homes along this

stretch of the ocean oven that are heavily damaged if not destroyed. i talked to one homeowner, his mother's house right on the ocean he said is a total wash, and there are streets behind us here in the community that are underwater as well. of course this is just one of dozens and dozens of towns up and down the new jersey coastline that are in deep trouble right now, jon. more than 2 million people in this state alone without power. again, they can't really get in to assess damages or cleanup their homes because the situation here is so bad. in fact there are communities to the south of us that are completely locked off from the mainland and we are as well. until waoe these floodwaters recede we can't get off of point pleasant beach. jon: what about the power lines, are they down? is there a chance they will get power back fairly soon? >> the lines appear at least here to be okay. you can see the power poles running up and down ocean avenue here.

the power has been out since early yesterday. we are not sure if they turned it off as a precaution or it went out on its own. we did see a major transformer blow last night. the glow of it lit up the horizon. they have clearly a lot of issues to deal with before they get the juice back on here, though. jon: what a mess. rick leventhal in point pleasant beach. thanks. jenna: amazing to see the parking meter. jon: three feet of sand they have to clear away there. jenna: hurricane sandy is pounding beach communities from virginia all the way up to new england and putting towns underwater and leaving millions in the dark. peter duepete peter doocy is live. >> 40,000 homes and businesses in delaware are still without power. they say that there are 90 areas in delaware across the state

that are flooded right now, and that almost a thousand, about 970 people spent last night in one of the six red cross shelters spread out across the state. the big thing that the authorities are still trying to get out to the folks is that even though the rain and the wind mostly is gone now is not a good time to go back and check on homes and businesses in the evacuation area, and here is a good reason why. before sandy this. where i'm sanding right now was a handicapped parking spot. right now it's covered in at least half a foot of sand. then there is a ton of water that's just been gushing in with the tide, a little bit of a surge maybe still. the authorities are saying there is no way to tell what is under the sand or what is in the water. they want to come in and check it out. it's dangerous, there are nails, boards with nails sticking out. we saw kids walking through the water with bare feet. that's what authorities don't want to see right now or really

ever until local authorities can come in and clear the area and tell people district by district that it's okay to come back. jenna: peter, good thing that you're prepared. it looks like you have the boots on that hopefully will protect you at least walking around to look at some of the damage. you're showing us that parking lot there. what about the roads around the area where you are? can people get out? >> we saw earlier, jenna, this morning not a lot of cars on the road, but right now the roads are mostly clear. there are still a few that are blocked off by the police, all morning long on the main drags where there was some junk that had flowed in from the bay or from the ocean, just random shells and rocks and some other sea trash, they were moving it off to the side of the road with snow plows, so the roads are mostly clear but there are a few where the police are saying, you cannot go past, and that is actually one that is not too far from here. we don't really know how bad some of the roads are.

that's another point the governor made earlier today, right now delaware -- it was not as bad here as they thought it would be, but there are roads closed, 40,000 homes and businesses still without power, and even though it's really hard not to go and check on your home or business right now they don't want you to until they can come and check out what is in the water and then the debris at your place. back to you, jenna. jenna: peter doocy live for us in delaware today. thank you. jon: after leaving its mark across much of the east coast monster storm sandy is pushing further inland. it is likely to dump even more rain and snow on millions more americans. meteorologist janice dean live in the fox news weather center. when you first told us about this storm jd you said, let's hope i'm wrong. unfortunately you were not. >> you know, thanks to the national hurricane center and the national weather service, they really were working hard to make sure that we got this storm as right as we possibly could

and warned as being people as we possibly could. i just want to say, hats off to first responders, the firemen, the policemen who are going out there and risking their lives to save our lives. so we thank you, because the pictures are devastating, unfortunately. let's take a look at our storm system. it's still quite a monster, unfortunately it is going to weake unfortunate fortunately it will weaken in the days ahead and we'll see the cleanup along the coast side. massive side of the storm from new england back to the midwest. blizzard conditions across pourings of west virginia. the winds will be in excess in some cases of 30, 40, 50 miles an hour. we have strong wind advisories up for the great lakes where we can see wind gusts in excess of 70 miles per hour. this will affect a lot of real estate. wind gusts that we saw yesterday when the storm was making landfall 90 miles per hour,

94 miles per hour along long island, along the jersey shore, areas in some cases that we have not seen the scope of the damage yet. the wind gusts as we head towards wednesday as the system moves north and west barred and the low pressure will move into canada. we'll feel winds real any some cases 30, 40 miles per hour well into thursday. but the good news is the coast can breathe a sigh of relief a little bit. i just want to show you the future radar shall as this low moves into canada we will see the outer bands of the storm system through wednesday and thursday. we are still seeing snow into thursday evening, friday for the mountains, in th in appalachians, where we are seeing the winter conditions. people pull together in these kinds of times and we are hoping this is no exception. jon: it seems like the endless storm. it's going to keep cranking and cranking and cranking, isn't it? >> it is. unfortunately it will be with us for the next few days.

jon: janice dean thank you. jenna: january i janice mentioned the snow is part of the storm along with the flooding and everything else. the storm is creating blizzard-like conditions. take a look at nearby flat top in west virginia. people are trying to dig their ways out of their driveways. i believe that is the lake in the shot you just saw. this area expected to get up to at least three more feet of snow in the next few days. joining us on the phone right now is west virginia governor earl ray tombl eurbs n. i understand you got after a teleconference call with the president. what can you tell me about that call. >> the president had asked all the governors of the affected states to join him on this call along with several mayor of hard-hit cities. basically just saying that whatever resources we need, as governors or elected officials he would do everything he could to try to make sure those

resources get to us as quickly as possible. we were just -- each governor was telling what the needs were, and if they had needs, and so -- and i think the president has approved all the declarations that have been requested from the various states that were affected by hurricane sandy. jenna: governor, what does west have need right now? >> our biggest concern right now is the amount of customers out of power. we've gone from 140,000 customers at 6:00 this morning now there are over 275,000 customers without power. that number continues to increase as the snow continues to come down, bringing down trees, bringing down power lines, and obviously that is our biggest concern right now is how we get the power back on. with having planned for this event we've had our department of highways, along with our national guard which are

deployed working with the power companies to make sure that the roads and the highways are cleared of trees and debris. so the power company can get in and get the service restored as quickly as possible. jenna: we are seeing some of the trees on the screen right now just filled with snow, heavy, hef she branches hanging over roads. how about your family? do you have power? what does it look like outside your wind window. >> i can see the snow coming down. i'm at the capitol right now. the snow has been going most of the night into the morning. it's a wet snow. there is not a whole lot of accumulation. most of our accumulation is in the higher elevations around snow shoe, poke k pokahontas county, it is coming down an inch an hour. we are continuing to wait out and see how long the no will continue to fall. it has been predicted it will go into tonight.

jenna: this is not typical governor, what you see in late october? >> absolutely not. a lot of the leaves are still on the trees, which doesn't help things with the heavy snow it has a tendency to bring the limbs of the whole trees down a lot quicker than it normally would if they were not there. jenna: governor, great for you to make time for us today. it's important that we keep and eye on all of the states not just the shoreline, but states like west virginia. we look forward to checking in with you later. thank you. jon: travel nightmare for thousands of air passengers all across the nation stranded by super storm sandy. air traffic grinds to a halt as new york's three major airports are still closed. an update straight ahead. plus the storm's impact on the state of new jersey. governor chris christie there saying it will be another day or two before we know even the full extent of the damage. >> the level of devastation at the jersey shore is unthinkable,

and we know that there are many people who own homes who we've evacuated who are going to want to get back onto the island to assess the damage to their homes. we are nowhere near being able to let you back onto the island. questions?

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jenna: miss sandy causing a travel nightmare that will keep rippling across the country for the next several days. so far the airlines canceled more than 13,000 flights, 13,000! they've already canceled 500 more tomorrow. all this is leaving thousands of passengers stranded in airports from coast to coast. we are even getting reports out of l.a. about flights interrupted there. a director of miami's airport in florida predicting it could take a week for air traffic to return to normal? a rescue operation underway in new jersey hours after the powerful storm ripped into the

state. causing a tidal surge in mone monake and little ferry. people were left on roofs waiting for boats to take them to safety. search and rescue crews are making their way through flooded streets of atlantic city. new jersey's republican governor, chris christie gave an update within the last couple of hours. >> our we currently about 2.4 million new jersey households without power. this is just so you understand the order of magnitude here, this is twice the number of impacted households as hurricane irene. jon: joining us on the phone now new jersey congressman frank palone who was evacuated from his home in long branch, new jersey. congressman, tell us what happened? how did the evacuation come

about? >> they evacuated basically everything east of ocean avenue in long branch. don't worry about me, i'm just concerned about everybody else. you know, long branch as you just heard was heavily hit. the boardwalk is all ripped up. the pier area has a lot of tkaopblg, th damage. the prom nature has damage. a lot of the waves basically between the storm surge and the waives actually crashing against houses, a lot of houses were just completely destroyed as well as some businesses. so right now i'm going out to look at the situation in union beach. talking to the mayor and others, it's pretty bad. jon: i know as a representative of the people you certainly feel their pain. what is going to be job one for

you? >> well i think we've got to get -- obviously fema is already working and we are doing assessments as we speak. we are primarily concerned about safety because a lot of power lines are down, and there are gas leaks, and we try to keep people away from those. people, if they go back, if they are in their homes should be very careful about the power lines and gas leaks. that is a big concern right now. then the assessment is going on as well for fema so that we can get the federal funds in to help out. jon: i guess the silver lining here at some point is that, you know, when you rebuild some of these areas, homes, businesses and so forth, you can build them better than before, but right now that seems an awful longtime away, huh? >> it really does. i'm going to do whatever i can to get all the federal funds in. one of the things i'd like to do is to have the federal government wave the local match. for a lot of the things there is a local match of 10 to 15%.

these towns won't be able to afford that. we are working on it. right now still the concern is safety more than anything else stphaoeut is still a potentially very dangerous and even deadly situation out there. strongman frank pallone is a democrat from new jersey who had to be evacuated. we wish you well as you and your state rebuild. jenna: tense situation in one hospital where the storm apartments path after hundreds of patients are forced to evacuate including newborn babies on ventilators. we'll get an update from a doctor who works from this hospital. dr. sealing is with us to tell us all about that situation. take a look at this. the incredible part of the new york city skyline a huge crane atop a luxury hirise under construction suddenly collapses and it's dangling over a midtown manhattan street, 70 stories high. the latest, next. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. in what world do potatoes, bacon and cheese add up to 100 calories?

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jon: a huge storm surge leaves an oil tanker stranded on new york's staten island much the front one-third of this 170-foot ship runs aground on the shore. luckily it was not loaded with oil at the time. no one was injured butt storm damaged several waterfront businesses in i the area. no word on how long it will take to get the tanker pulled off the beach. jenna: all morning we've been telling you about a story out of new york city, and there are many stories. this is where a power failure late last night forced a hospital to evacuate more than 200 patients in the middle of the storm, including 20 babies, little infants from the neonatal intensive care unit. were any of these patients in real danger? what about the response here? dr. marc siegl is part of our fox news medical a team he's an

associate professor of immediate son where the evacuation took place. what stands out most to you about what happened last night? >> this is unprecedented. there's been previous blackouts where generators have gone down in hospitals but nothing of this scope. i spoke with our dean of clinical affairs who laid this out for me that there were tables in the middle of the lobby and we had everyone there, fire department, police department, emergency workers, physicians working through the night. they brought down the sickist patients first and transferred hem out to local hospitals, to st. lukes, to mt. sinai, cornell. jenna: doctor if i could, there is a woman on our screen right there. can you bring that picture back full guys in the control room. she is holding ability tiny baby. we don't know if that is the nurse holding the little baby or the mother who gave birth. there were very small infants moved out of the hospital. how much danger were they in? >> they were in quite a bit. four of the babies were

literally brought out with people bagging them, pushing air into their lungs. nobody died in transfer. they sent doctors with them. in order to get the other hospitals to accept the patients doctors, surgeons, medical doctors went with the patients and will work with them over the next day to help them transfer to make sure nothing is lost and that they do well in the next hospital. this occurred because the generators downstairs got covered with water and they weren't expecting this much water. the floods caused this. jenna: just going back to the pictures, there is another little child, again as you were mentioning getting some treatment there, getting moved to another hospital. what about the risk moving forward, doc? they got out of the hospital okay, what about from this time on? >> i think the patients will be okay. by the way there is also a problem before the storm, they closed the emergency room, they moved other patients out in anticipation of this. the hospital is now completely closed. there is no internet, no phone service, there is no medical service whatsoever, and i'm worried about people who live in the area. after all, there has been

floods, there are power blackouts, what if you need medical care? a lot of people rely on my hospital for this. jenna: many of our medical records are become electronic now. is there any -- when you see these massive power failures, and so much of the medicine and communication is done electronically what concern should we have? what kind of records should we keep, you know, maybe not just on the internet, on email? >> you made that point to me at break, i think that is a tremendous point. we go all the way to electronic records we'll lose that follow-up. we had to literally send doctors to make sure that they knew. we have to have back up in paper the old fashioned way. i'm a big believer in that. we better be careful for what we wish for. we'll go all the way to computers and we won't be prepared for a disaster like this. this never happens. this was a heroic response. jenna: so great that the little babies are okay. >> more than 200. jenna: thank you, doctor. jon: the storm will have

nationwide impact on air travel, real world-wide airports. these are some of the passengers who were stranded in tphoerp yan airports, places like london's her heaththrow. charles de gaulle airport in paris. the brussel's airport. other large airports are shut down along the east coast. many of the flights that ordinarily would be taking off from paris or london to come here, well their passengers are left stranded. in other cases planes that should be over there are stuck over here. a real mess in terms of air travel and it's going to take days if not weeks to get it all back to normal. jenna: we are not even looking at the economic affect of all this. tourism being a big part of new york city's economy and elsewhere as well will certainly be figured in as we take a look at what happens next with this storm. some areas hit hard by the super storm, cleanup efforts are getting started as we speak. we'll take to you virginia next, a live report on what is happening there.

we'll speak with emergency managers working to cleanup the mess. and both presidential campaigns changing their plans because of sandy. we'll take a closer look at the potential impact of the storm just one week before election day. [ male announcer ] when was the last time something made your jaw drop?

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jon: in virginia tens of thousands of folks remain out pow he, the storm snapping power lines, sending surging seawaters into towns and dumping snow, yes, snow in the southwestern part of the commonwealth.

shannon bream, live in arlington for us. shannon. >> reporter: well, jon, this is the scene as rain and winds continue here. this is just a little bit of the aftermath in this one neighborhood, a tree that has been standing here since the civil war we're told. well it fell from one neighbor's yard into the other. you can see it basically sheared off the front corner of the house. you can see all the way up into the attic. personal items there, clothes hanging there. a suitcase. there is even a picture that survived and is still on the wall. the family was right in the path of where that tree fell, all four of them did get out safely. they've been taken in by neighbors for now as they assess and figure out what to do next. that is the scene in block after block in this arlington neighborhood, a couple miles out from downtown washington d.c. a lot of flooding in this area as well. north of here in maryland you can see that it's going to create real problems as it continues to rain here the pa tomorropoepa stomach i

potomac, one of the top five floods in its history. in maryland a tree at a house had a different ending, a machine was killed after a tree fell on his home. there is a traffic fatality in maryland connected to hurricane sandy. for now what we're seeing is folks coming their neighbor coming out with their cameras to visit and take pictures of all the aftermath of this historic storm. something else that we're seeing and around the country and through the northeast is neighbors taking each other in, giving each other food and shelter. it's the one bright spot we are seeing today as we assess the damage outside washington d.c. jon, back to you. jon: lots of work to do. shannon bream, thanks. jenna: a night thought from shannon on neighbors helping neighbors as well. joining us on the phone is the communicatings director for virginia emergency management. bob, you've really become a friend of the show, we've talked to you for the last telephone

days. how is everything going today? >> we are trying to figure out exactly what sandy did to virginia. we are so far so good. we are still getting impacts to the northern virginia area and also to the western part with the snow. virginia's eastern shore has some flooding out there. they will continue to have some flooding in the northern parts. we are trying to get an idea exactly what sandy did to virginia. jenna: so much at one time. snow, to the shore, to the flooding to the power outages. what seems to be the priority if there is one at this time? >> really, we still have about 160,000 people without power across the commonwealth. that number has been dropping slowly, but we are continuing to see the impacts up in northern virginia area, still looking at additional flooding, and of course the winter weather in the western part of the states. so far the roads out there are doing okay but that is something we will keep a close eye on throughout the day. jenna: what kind of crews have you mobilized at this time? >> we've had our department of transportation busy out there all day, and through last night we've had our state police,

swift water rescue teams in place for any flooding potentials and our national guard have been in place as well. they haven't had a lot of things they've had to do which is a good thing but they are still there to support the locals, officials if they need any more assistance. jenna: one of the questions that so many of our viewers have is when does life return to normal? what kind of time horizon do you see for some of life returning to normal for the next several days? >> well, we've seen down in the southeastern part of the states -- i mean sandy made its first impact starting to improve down there, they are going to be going out and starting to do damage assessments in their areas. gradually that will happen in other areas. it's going to take a little bit of time but we'll definitely get back into what we normally do on a day-to-day basis. jenna: bob, it's great to have you back with us. we'll continue to watch what is happening in virginia and look forward to talking to you again. thank you very much. >> thank you, jenna. jon: exactly one week to go until the 2012 election.

both campaigns are feeling the impact of super storm sandy. some events are being canceled, others being scaled back. senior national correspondent john roberts live in kettering, ohio. >> both governor romney, congressman ryan, president obama and the vice president off the road. this was supposed to be a campaign event. they turned it into a relief effort. people were asked as the private admission bring some canned goods, dry goods, water, something like that. a lot of people got that message and showed up. they are collecting quite a few supplies. a lot of people didn't get that message, though, and really came here kind of empty handed. maybe they were still expecting some kind of a campaign event. no formal remarks though governor romney did stand up in front of the crowd, thanked them very much for coming down and said this is a time for the nation to come together to help those in harm's way. here is what the governor said. >> some went to the grocery store i see and purchased some

thins that these families will need, and i appreciate your generosity. it's part of the american spirit, the american way. we won't be able to solve all the problems with our effort this morning, though a lot of people will still be looking for goods even though we've gathered these things, as you know, but i know that one of the things i've learned in life is that you make the difference you can. >> reporter: you make the difference that you can, that's what governor romney said. people here in ohio also experiencing the affects of the storm, the wind has been up, a lot of rain as well. there are some people in this state without power, though nowhere near the degree of force along the east coast. while governor romney and his campaign suspended all campaign appearances the obama campaign did not. president clinton out campaigning in colorado today. the romney campaign has preferred to do these relief efforts with mitt romney's here in ohio, congressman ryan has a couple in wisconsin today and

governor romney in wisconsin and green bay and three more in iowa. it looks like the campaign will get back underway tomorrow with three events in florida. of course those could always be canceled depending own what the situation is. they are monitoring it moment by moment to see what direction this is all going in. jon: one week from today it all end. jojohn roberts, thank you. jenna: amazing to think about that. jon: we've been talking about this election for months. jenna: it's one of the top battleground states and that's where we are headed next. who is ahead in florida and what are voters there looking for that could swing this election? we'll take a look at that. plus, take a look at this. powerful winds knocking over a giant crane high above midtown manhattan, dangerously dangling in the wind and it's still up there, folks, an update next.

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stable. that's what they say. surrounding streets are closed as passerbies look up 70 floors to where the crane is hanging in this dense neighborhood. the crane is about two blocks from central park and across from carnegie hall. mayor bloomberg says winds will need to die down a bit before crews can fully secure the crane sitting on top of this bulling. >> the procedure there will be when the winds die down to try to get the boom and strap it to the building and we can reopen the streets. over the period of time the contracting company will have to figure out a way to build a new crane on top and take that one down. jenna: the city not taking any chances. this really forced the evacuation of several nearby buildings, including a hotel displacing hundreds of guests. jon: it is a very tight race for the battleground state of florida where early voting began on sunday. let's take a look at some of the facts involved. florida is the biggest of the swing states that are key to winning this election.

if you go down there to the sunshine state, looking at the stats the electoral votes are what these two candidates are so focused on, 29 of them up for grabs in florida. the unemployment rate, if you want to look at the economic statistics, the unemployment rate in florida right now 8.7% higher than the national average. gas prices right now $3.50 a gallon. lots of foreclosures in florida as well, one of every 318 housing units in foreclosure. in terms of the number of visits, each candidate has made florida a pivotal stopping ground. president obama has been there 12 times, mitt romney has been there 13 times. the "real clear politics" polling average shows a virtual tie, governor romney slightly ahead about 49-48. we have the tallahassee bureau chief of "the "tampa bay times"." it's my understanding you have

tpupl numbers from your paper that shows the race not as tight as "real clear politics" has it. >> florida is trending in mitt romney's direction. it was unusual and a unique undertaking for my newspaper, we polled voters in the bell weather section of florida, the i4 corridor, which runs from tampa bay across the state to daytona beach. mitt romney 51%, president obama 45%. the president's people have said in none of their polling shows him lower than 47% in the state of florida. our poll had romney up by six points in the i4 corridor. jon: and that's really the prize in florida, isn't it? that is what both candidates are struggling to win. >> it is. it's where the candidates spend most of their time. bill clinton has campaigned for president obama in orlando. it's where tampa is located. swing voters, independents, working moms, growing hispanic vote, i4 is where the villages

is located the megaretirement community that is a must-stop for every presidential candidate on the republican saoeufpltd it's big and it includes two of the biggest media markets in the state, tampa and orlando. tomorrow mitt romney comes to florida, he's got three stops, one of them is in tampa. jon: seems like it's rare this a hurricane that causes destruction in this country doesn't visit florida, but hurricane sandy really didn't do much to that state. you've got early voting underway, no problems right now, as far as weather goes, right? >> no problems as far as weather, but early voting which began last saturday and will end this coming saturday, huge wait times, long waits. people are not complaining, there are no problems but i just checked the miami-dade elections website. some of their sites have three-hour wait times. people are waiting to line for three hours to vote early. the weather down here is great today. jon: why the interest? i'm just curious, why not if you've got a three-hour wait why

not come back on election day or something like this and cast your ballot then? >> yeah, that is a good point. people, especially democrats, more than republicans, the statistics bear that out, republicans prefer to vote by mail or absentee, democrats prefer early voting, and your highest early voting turn outs, jon are in democratic-leaning counties like miami day. the other thin miami-dade. we have a historically long ballot in florida. if there will be problems on election day it will be the fact that the precincts, even though many more precincts are open on election day a lot of people will go in and see the long ballot for the first time and take their time voting and the lines will get longer. jon: steve works for the "tampa bay times." the bureau in the state capitol of tallahassee. steve, thank you. >> thanks, jon. jenna: our viewers certainly help us tell the story of super storm sandy. please keep your videos and photos coming in. we'll share some of your photos

ahead. the early estimates are starting to come in on the extent of the storm damage. more news as it develops throughout the day. one of the angles we're looking at next is how much is sandy costing the economy at such a crucial time. a break down just ahead. i have a cold, and i took nyquil, but i'm still stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't unstuff your nose. what? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels speeds relief to your worst cold symptoms plus has a decongestant for your stuffy nose. thanks. that's the cold truth!

jon: it is clear that sandy will have the worst impact on our economy than any storm in decades. the ap is reporting that the new york stock exchange will reopen tomorrow after being closed for these two straight days. the form also expected to cost the u.s. economy anywhere from 20 to $50 billion. that is really just an early estimate. elizabeth mcdonald is live in our new york city newsroom with the break down of all of this. elizabeth. >> yeah, that's right, jon. the economic estimate are

pouring in and sandy is now expected to rank among the top ten costliest u.s. hurricanes ever. the economic impact of sandy is still unclear. damage estimates do vary as you pointed out from 20 billion to as high as $50 billion. that means sandy could be on a par with the historic 1938 hurricane that slammed new york's long island and rhode island. now the new york stock exchange will open tomorrow, that is what the big board is telling us, but separate from that u.s. retailers may see holiday sales hurt as many is diverted to spend on rebuilding. an oil and gas prices could rice in the northeast if east coast refineries are shut down for a prolonged period. 7% of u.s. oil capacity is located in the region, which basically delivers about 15% overall of u.s. gdp. however, jpmorgan chase is forecasting that about $36 billion could be spent on

rebuilding, giving the battered housing and construction sectors a boost. back to you, jon. jon: there is going to be some economic activity generated by all this misery, i guess that is the silver lining. >> that's right, jon. jon: elizabeth mcdonald. thank you. >> sure. jenna: we are also getting your images of this massive storm into the you report side. we'll show you a few photos that came in. this is from reverend a. craig chapman getting scary news. he and his entire family are safe in texas. a pa trish tpher sent him a photo of his home. there will be a lot of clean up to do there. he's going a hard time getting a flight home. he has people checking on things for him. susan sent in this photo from astoria in new york city outside her daughter's home. she is glad the tree fell away from the house instead of falling in the opposite direction right into it. michael sent us this photo from landsdale, pa.

a tre pennsylvania. send your photos to us at foxnews.com/ureport. stay safe out there when you're snapping some of those photos. jon: today i'm safe and dry thankfully here in our studio. jenna: we are thankful for that, jon. jon: i appreciate that. yesterday i was down there in lower manhattan, an area that was quickly submerged by the storm surge. yeah, that's i guess what i looked like. one of my -- one of our fellow workers said i looked like a drowned blue cat. jenna: that with us a little harsh. i won't go that far. jon: i was doing the best coy. jenna: you looked in it, in action, jon. jon: statue of liberty still standing tall out there. but the point we are making was that, you know, i'm six feet tall. the storm surge came in at a level above where my head was yesterday. jenna: let's show that picture again. that was such a good example as

jon was standing in lower manhattan you kept on saying, if the storm surge gets high it's going to go over your head. it was a record at 13 feet. jon: it came up about 13 feet. i was two feet above the tide at that point. another five feet over my head is how much water came in there. jenna: i think you look good out there, jon. nothing like a drowned cat or anything like that. jon: thank you. jenna: we'll be right back with more happening now. my doctor told me calcium

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jon: you know, so much of the national media is head quart erred right here in negotiate. when a story hits negotiate it gets all kinds of coverage, but, you know, we don't want to forget this storm is still going on and people like the folks in west virginia are really getting hammered right now. the snow up in the mountains there. this is that view we showed you earlier from the tower cam in beckley, west virginia. two to three feet of snow falling on the mountains of that state and it's going to keep coming, janice dean says for perhaps a day or more.

jenna: do you ever get some early snows? we asked the governor, maybe this is in the realm of possibility. he says this is not what happens in virginia in late october. the president said to the governors of all these states the federal government will be there too support them, which i'm sure is reassuring as the storm is continuing, and there is more to come, that is what is the most difficult about all of this. jon: in assessing the damage that's done here is really not done yet. it normally takes after this kind of destruction it takes a day or two before they can get the choppers up in the air that can get a real good handle on how much damage has been done and where. jenna: quick look if we can as well at lake michigan. that is a live look. jon: holy cow. jenna: they are expecting waves i believe upwards of 20 feet here at lake michigan. it is headed towards you, chicago, and wisconsin, and maybe in the next couple of days we'll talk more about how this can affect voting if the storm continues and has an affect over the nex